7 Things I Always Do Before The New Year

31/12/2018

Happy New Years Eve!

I was originally planning on getting this post up a few days ago, but I’ve basically been living in a food coma for the last week and it’s been heaven.

I’ve been using the season as an excuse to take some much needed self care time; no uni, no work, no worrying over posting on social media. It was difficult to turn off from “work mode” at first, but after a few days I really started to enjoy doing nothing more than laying on the settee, reading my new books and drinking endless cups of tea.

Although saying that, I’m excited to get back to work and prepare for the launch of some exciting new things in the new year!

I’ve never really been one to do the whole “new year, new me” thing – I tried it a few times as I felt I had to, and it just left me feeling worse than ever.

Instead I’m going to focus on falling in love with myself and being the best version of myself that I can be. This year has basically been one long battle to come to terms with being autistic, and while I’m still struggling, I honestly think I’m finally starting to get there.

So even though I don’t really tend to set goals or change anything for the new year, there are a few things that I always take the time to do.

They get me in a positive mindset and also just make my life a hell of a lot easier, as my life (and room) tend to become a bit of a mess this time of year!

Wash My Makeup Brushes

I know I know it’s gross, but no matter how many times I put it at the top of my to do list; I always end up forgetting. Don’t get me wrong, I do actually clean them, but probably no where near as much as I should do.

So at the end of every year, I make sure to take some time to clean all of my brushes and get rid of and replace any that are getting old.

Have A Clear Out

I have clear outs all year round, but I love having one just after Christmas.

I mostly get clothes for Christmas, so I take the opportunity to clean out and refresh my wardrobe while I’m putting them away.

I’ll sort through them for anything that doesn’t fit me well or that I haven’t worn in a long time; which I then donate to our local animal rescue charity shop.

While it’s mostly clothes that I sort though, I also take the time to go through my makeup collection and get rid of any old products, as well as generally tidying up and getting rid of the clutter that’s built up over the year.

Clean Up My Laptop

I have two external hard drives that I use to back everything up, which I use to get rid of large files from my laptop and stop that annoying notification that tells you you have no storage left.

I’ve never realised until now how much room video files take up!

Have A Social Media Refresh

This is one of the most important tasks I do if I’m being honest.

I have a love/hate relationship with social media, and it’s probably the hardest part of being a blogger for me…well except managing my inbox…

So to make it that little bit easier, I make sure my feeds are places that I look forward to going on. I want them to be full of positivity, motivation and other people with similar goals to me; not sub-tweets, gossip and general bitchiness!

There can be a lot of fear around unfollowing someone, but I’ve slowly got to the point where I just don’t care; my mental health comes first.

Plus Instagram and Twitter have the “mute” option now, which can be a great way to stop seeing someone’s content if you don’t want to unfollow them for whatever reason.

Put My Presents Away

I have an annoying habit of just leaving presents under the tree until the day it gets taken down.

It stems from when I was a little kid and wanted to make Christmas last as long as possible, but now that I’m basically the female version of The Grinch, it doesn’t really bother me anymore and I just end up thinking that they make the room look a mess.

So for the last fews I’ve made an effort to put my presents away by New Year’s Day.

Although saying that, it’s NYE and most of my presents are still sitting under the tree…

Clear Out My Phone

Please tell me I’m not the only one who end up with a huge collection of screenshots and images on your phone that you’ve no idea why you took?

I’ll spend an hour or two going through my phone and getting rid of any images, screenshots, apps and podcasts that I no longer need or listen to.

Not only does that free up space on my phone, but it makes it a lot easier to find things I use on a regular basis.

Revamp My Blog

I actually did this at the end of November; I bought a new theme that looked a lot more professional, had space to advertise services for when I start offering coaching, and a dedicated section for podcasts.

Unfortunately thanks to a few unforeseen catastrophes (mainly thanks to uni) I’ve not been able to launch any of my new products and services like I originally planned.

Hopefully they’ll both be live by the end of January though!

I usually use the gap between Christmas and the new year to give my blog a bit of TLC; checking for broken links, updating old posts and refreshing my about page + bios.

I also make sure to have a lot at my pinnable graphic and see if I can update it to better fit by brand or make it more visually appealing. This year I’ve changed the colour pallet to fit my brand colours, added an extra section for keywords and included my logo at the top – and I’m really happy with the changes.

Pinterest is still my number one traffic referral, so making sure my images and graphics are as eye-catching as possible is really important to me!

Not only is all of this great for my blog, but it’s a good way to slowly nudge myself back into “work mode” after taking Christmas off.

I do a lot of these on a pretty regular basis too. Clearing out things, not matter where, always feels so good. It make me feel like I am having a fresh start. I very much want to revamp my blog as well and hope to do that sometime this month. 🙂

I more or less do ALL of these things too! My end of year room clear out is one of my favourite things to do. I always whack all my stuff from the previous year onto a USB and clear my laptop and go through my Facebook friends list as well. Out with the old 🙂 xxx

These are some awesome tips I never really considered! I love having fresh new organized things when coming home from a vacation but for some reason I never thought to do the same for a New Year?!

I’m awful at washing my brushes… right now I’m struggling with how to clean a Beauty Blender! I’m guilty of some of my gifts still hanging out on the counter or on the table I had shot them at lol but in my defense I’m waiting for a drawer organizer to properly store everything! As for the clearing out my phone thing — I really need to do that… soon!

These are great goals and I’m sure you’ll achieve them all! I get you with the make up brushes, I find it so hard to clean them because I wear make up pretty much every day when I go to work and if I go out at the weekends and when you wash them you then have to let them dry for a while and then I can’t use them so I just feel like it’s so hard to find the right time!

Haha oops! Hopefully this helped give you a bit of motivation to do some of the things on your list 🙊 and me too! I love to get some new socks and pants at Christmas/New Year and throw out any old ones 🙂

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HI THERE!

Thanks for stopping by! I’m a twenty-five-year-old digital media graduate with a passion for writing and a desire to change the way we view mental health and autism. I’ve owned jademarie.co.uk for nearly two years now, and its slowly changed from a place where I would brain dump whatever was going through my head that day, into a place where people can come for help, advice and hopefully a bit of a laugh. I do occasionally come out with a witty sentence or two. Mostly by accident.